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AN    APPEAL 


PROFESSORS   OF  CHRISTIANITY, 


IN  THE  SOUTHERN  STATES  AND  ELSEWHERE, 


ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  SLAVERY 


THE  REPRESENTATIVES   OF 


THE  YEARLY  MEETING  OF  FRIENDS 


FOR   NEW  ENGLAND. 


PROVIDENCE  : 
PRINTED    BY    KNOWLES    AND    VOSE. 

1  842. 


AN     APPEAL. 


IT  is  the  duty  of  those  who  are  the  professed  followers 
of  our  Divine  Master,  to  be  concerned  for  the  welfare  of 
their  fellow-professors,  and  for  their  steady  advancement 
in  the  path  prescribed  by  our  Lord  for  all  his  servants 
to  walk  in  ;  and  it  is  their  privilege  to  extend  to  them 
a  word  of  caution  or  entreaty  in  a  spirit  of  love  and 
good  will,  which  desires  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the 
whole  heritage  of  God.  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men,"  was  the  an- 
them sung  by  angels  at  the  advent  of  the  Messiah  ;  and 
as  we  become  partakers  of  his  spirit,  we,  too,  may  be 
enabled  to  join  in  this  angelic  song. 

It  is,  we  trust,  in  Christian,  brotherly  love,  and  for  the 
promotion  of  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness,  and 
certainly  not  for  the  advancement  of  any  temporal  interest 
of  our  own,  that  we  are  induced,  at  this  time,  to  present 
to  our  fellow-professors,  of  every  denomination,  this  brief 
address  on  the  subject  of  Slavery  ;  and  the  freedom  that 
we  feel  ourselves  required  to  use  in  relation  to  it,  will 
not,  we  hope,  be  deemed  obtrusive,  when  we  remember 
the  intrinsic  importance  of  the  matter  treated  of,  and 
call  to  mind  the  one  faith  and  ground  of  hope  of  all 
true  professors  of  Christianity.  We  are  believers  in  one 
Savior,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  died  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world.  We  believe  in  him  as  a  risen  Mediator, 
who  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us.  We  believe 
in  the  promised  Comforter,  —  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  —  to 


857360 


guide  into  all  truth.  We  believe  in  a  final  day,  when  we 
must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  to 
receive  a  reward  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body ;  and 
that  it  is  not  every  one  that  saith,  Lord,  Lord,  that  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  they  who  do 
the  will  of  our  Father,  who  is  in  heaven.  It  is  they  who 
have  clothed  the  naked,  fed  the  hungry,  visited  the  sick, 
and  showed  mercy,  that  shall  obtain  mercy.  These  fun- 
damental doctrines  are,  we  trust,  faithfully  received  by  all 
those  who  have  a  hope  of  salvation  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  they  do  acknowledge  his  holy  precepts  and 
commandments  given  forth  for  the  observance  of  men  as 
possessing  obligatory  and  paramount  authority  to  the 
present  day.  Among  these  binding  injunctions  is  that 
universal  rule  which  commends  itself  to  the  conscience 
of  every  man  for  its  justice  and  wisdom  •«  "  Whatsoever 
ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them" — a  rule  most  comprehensive  in  its  application,  and 
eminently  practical  in  its  results.  It  extends  to  all  whom 
God  has  created  ;  and  "  He  made  of  one  blood  all  the 
nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth." 
By  creation  the  whole  human  family  are  brethren ;  they 
are  all  "  concluded  in  unbelief;  "  they  all  stand  in  need  of 
redemption  ;  and  Christ,  in  infinite  love,  died  for  all.  All 
whom  God  made  are  the  objects  of  his  mercy ;  all  are  em- 
braced in  the  means  of  salvation  which  he  has  appointed  ; 
and  all,  without  distinction  of  caste  or  color,  must  stand 
before  him  at  the  day  of  judgment ;  and  it  is  that  you 
and  we  may  appear  with  joy  at  his  tribunal,  and  receive 
a  gracious  welcome  into  the  mansions  prepared  for  the 
righteous,  that  we  are  induced  now  to  plead  with  you 
in  love,  and  to  entreat  you  to  give  a  patient  attention 
to  what  is  presented  for  your  solemn  consideration. 

It  may  be  known  to  you  that,  at  one  time,  there  were 
of  our  fellow-members  of  the  society  of  Friends  those 
that  held  slaves,  as  some  of  you  do  at  this  day ;  and 


5 

while  we  would  speak  it  with  humility,  we  may,  per- 
haps, be  permitted  to  say,  that  we  doubt  not  it  was 
through  the  enlightening  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
upon  their  hearts,  that  they  were  enabled  to  see  that  this 
practice  did  not  accord  with  that  love  which  has  been 
so  mercifully  extended  to  the  children  of  men  through 
their  adorable  Savior,  and  was  inconsistent  with  his  uni- 
versal rule,  which  we  have  cited. 

It  is  not  our  desire  to  revive  any  considerations  which 
are  calculated  unprofitably  to  awaken  your  feelings,  but  we 
believe  it  to  be  the  duty  of  us  all  candidly  to  contemplate 
the  misery  and  suffering  that  are  inseparably  connected 
with  slavery  from  its  very  beginning  on  the  continent  of 
Africa.  It  commences  in  exciting  into  action  the  worst 
passions  of  the  human  mind,  inducing  an  awful  destruc- 
tion of  life,  cruel  separation  of  friends,  and  dreadful  suf-  ; 
ferings  on  the  part  of  survivors.  Let  us  not  be  willing  : 
to  hide  from  our  view  the  terrible  effects  of  the  foreign 
slave  trade,  or  attempt  to  screen  ourselves  from  the  re- 
sponsibility that  attaches  to  us  under  the  plea  that  this 
traffic  is  interdicted  by  our  government,  and  that  all  who 
are  concerned  in  it  are  held  as  pirates  by  the  laws  of  our 
land.  The  facts  in  the  case  incontestably  prove  that,  while 
a  market  for  slaves  exists,  the  cupidity  of  degenerate  and 
wicked  men  will  devise  means  to  evade  the  execution  of 
these  laws ;  and  we  deem  it  pertinent  to  our  purpose  to 
spread  before  you  some  well-authenticated  statements, 
which  tend  to  show  the  extent  of  the  traffic,  and  to  ex- 
hibit, in  some  degree,  its  wickedness  and  cruelty. 

With  the  effects  of  slavery  at  home  many  of  you  are 
familiar.  You  are  witnesses  of  its  influences  in  their 
various  bearings  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  You  are 
conversant  with  the  degradation  and  wretchedness  which, 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  always  attend  it.  Bat  its 
more  remote  consequences  may  escape  observation,  and 
we  may  even  lose  sight  in  the  distance  of  the  necessary 


connection  of  cause  and  effect.  It  is  a  truth  which  we 
believe  cannot  be  disproved,  that  to  slavery,  as  a  cause,  is 
the  slave  trade  to  be  traced,  as  an  effect,  with  all  its 
manifold  misery  and  crime ;  and  we  would  appeal  to  all 
those  who  are  concerned  in  the  one,  whether  its  aban- 
donment would  not  certainly  produce  the  destruction  of 
the  other  j  and  can  those  who  are  the  supporters  of 
slavery,  consistently,  or  with  hope  of  success,  plead 
against  the  slave  trade,  its  legitimate  offspring,  its  bitter 
and  natural  fruit.  Let  us  be  willing  to  examine  this 
subject  as  it  is,  and  act  as  our  consciences,  enlightened 
by  the  truth,  shall  dictate. 

The  extent  of  the  slave  trade  at  the  present  day  is 
much  greater  than  could  possibly  be  believed  by  those 
who  have  not  informed  themselves  upon  the  subject.  We 
avail  ourselves  of  some  of  the  authorities  collected  in  a  work 
recently  published  by  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton,  which  we 
believe  entitled  to  entire  confidence — the  work  itself 
giving  evidence  of  having  been  prepared  with  great  care 
and  candor,  after  much  patient  inquiry  and  investigation. 
It  appears  to  be  well  established  by  this  author,  that, 
notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  done  to  arrest  this 
traffic,  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  human 
beings  are  annually  conveyed  from  Africa  across  the  At- 
lantic, and  sold  as  slaves,  being  landed  principally  at 
some  of  the  ports  of  Brazil  and  Cuba ;  and  not  less  than 
fifty  thousand  more  are  required  for  the  supply  of  the 
Mohammedan  slave  trade  ;  —  making  a  total  of  more  than 
two  hundred  thousand  persons  who  are  annually  torn 
from  the  land  of  their  nativity  and  sold  into  perpetual 
slavery.* 

*  R.  R.  Gurley,  the  well-known  advocate  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society,  in  a  publication  printed  by  him  in  England,  in  1841,  gives  it  as  his 
opinion,  from  all  the  facts  he  could  collect,  that  "  nearly  or  quite  half  a  mil- 
lion of  wretched  Africans,  are  annually  torn  from  their  homes,  a  moiety  of 
whom  perish  in  capture,  during  their  march  to  the  coast,  in  the  holds  of  slave 
ships  on  their  passage  across  the  ocean,  or  during  the  first  trials  of  toil  and 
exposure  in  a  foreign  climate." 


After  having  very  fully  established  that  his  estimate 
of  numbers  does  not  exceed  the  truth,  Buxton  proceeds 
to  say,  "  Hitherto  I  have  stated  less  than  the  half  of  this 
dreadful  case.  I  am  now  going  to  show  that,  besides  the 
two  hundred  thousand  annually  carried  into  captivity, 
there  are  claims  on  our  compassion  for  almost  countless 
cruelties  and  murders  growing  out  of  the  slave  trade.  I 
am  about  to  prove  that  this  multitude  of  our  enslaved 
fellow-men  is  but  the  remnant  of  numbers  vastly  greater, 
the  survivors  of  a  still  larger  multitude  over  whom  th^ 
slave  trade  spreads  its  devastating  hand,*^and  that  for 
every  ten  who  reach  Cuba  or  Brazil,  and  become  available 
as  slaves,  fourteen,  at  least,  are  destroyed.  This  mortality 
arises  from  the  following  causes :  — 

"  1st.  The  original  seizure  of  the  slaves. 

"  2d.    The  march  to  the  coast,  and  detention  there. 

"  3d.    The  middle  passage. 

."  4th.  The  sufferings  after  capture,  and  after  landing  ;  and 

"  5th.  The  initiation  into  slavery,  or  the  '  seasoning,'  as 
it  is  termed  by  the  planters."  The  original  seizure  of  the 
slaves  causes  a  great  part  of  the  continent  of  Africa  to 
be  "  a  field  of  warfare  and  desolation,  a  wilderness  in 
which  the  inhabitants  are  wolves  to  each  other."  "  On 
the  authority  of  public  documents,  parliamentary  evidence, 
and  the  works  of  African  travellers,  it  appears  that  the 
principal  and  almost  the  only  cause  of  war  in  the  interior 
of  Africa,  is  the  desire  to  procure  slaves  for  traffic ;  and 
that  every  species  of  violence,  from  the  invasion  of  an 
army  to  that  of  robbery  by  a  single  individual,  is  had 
recourse  to  for  the  attainment  of  this  object."  *  *  *  * 

"  William  Wilberforce,  in  his  letter  to  his  constituents 
in  1807,  has  described  the  mode  in  which  slaves  are 
usually  obtained  in  Africa;  and,  after  speaking  of  the 
dreadful  and  exterminating  wars  that  are  often  waged  by 
one  tribe  upon  another,  he  remarks, — 

"In  another  part  of  the   country,  we  learn  from  the 


8 

most  respectable  testimony,  that  a  practice  prevails,  called 
village  breaking.  The  village  is  attacked  in  the  night; 
if  deemed  needful  to  increase  the  confusion,  it  is  set  on 
fire,  and  the  wretched  inhabitants,  as  they  are  flying  naked 
from  the  flames,  are  seized  and  carried  into  slavery. 

"  These  depredations  are  far  more  commonly  perpetrated 
by  the  natives  on  each  other,  and  on  a  larger  or  smaller 
scale,  according  to  the  power  and  number  of  the  assail- 
ants, and  the  resort  of  ships  to  the  coast ;  it  prevails  so 
generally  as  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Africa  to 
render  person  and  property  utterly  insecure."  *  *  "Every 
man  who  has  acquired  any  considerable  property,  or  who 
has  a  large  family,  the  sale  of  which  will  produce  a  con- 
siderable profit,  excites  in  the  chieftain  near  whom  he 
resides,  the  same  longings  which  are  called  forth  in  the 
wild  beast  by  the  exhibition  of  his  proper  prey ;  and  he 
himself  lives  in  a  continual  state  of  suspicion  and  terror." 
The  statements  of  Wilberforce  have  been  corroborated  by 
Bryan  Edwards,  himself  a  dealer  in  slaves,  and  an  able 
and  persevering  advocate  for  the  continuance  of  the  traf- 
fic. In  a  speech  delivered  in  the  Jamaica  assembly,  he 
says,  "  I  am  persuaded  that  Wilberforce  has  been  very 
rightly  informed  as  to  the  manner  in  which  slaves  are 
very  generally  procured.  The  intelligence  I  have  col- 
lected from  my  own  negroes  abundantly  confirms  his 
account ;  and  I  have  not  the  smallest  doubt  that  in  Africa 
the  effects  of  this  trade  are  precisely  such  as  he  represents 
them  to  be." 

"  But,  it  may  be  said,  admitting  these  statements  to  be 
true,  they  refer  to  a  state  of  things  in  Africa  which  does 
not  now  exist.  A  considerable  period  of  time  has  indeed 
elapsed  since  these  statements  were  made ;  but  it  clearly 
appears,  that  the  same  system  has  obtained,  throughout 
the  interior  of  Africa,  down  to  the  present  time  ;  nor  is  it 
to  be  expected  that  any  favorable  change  will  take  place 
during  the  continuance  of  the  slave  traffic." 


"  Professor  Smith,  who  accompanied  Captain  Tuckey 
in  the  expedition  to  the  Congo, in  1816,  says,  '  Everyman 
I  have  conversed  with  acknowledges  that,  if  white  men 
did  not  come  for  slaves,  the  wars,  which,  nine  times  out 
of  ten,  result  from  the  European  slave  trade,  would  be 
proportionally  less  frequent.' 

"  Captain  Lyon  states  that,  when  he  was  at  Fezzan,  in 
J819,  Mukni,  the  reigning  sultan,  was  continually  engaged 
in  these  slave  hunts,  in  one  of  which  eighteen  hundred 
were  captured,  all  of  whom,  excepting  a  very  few,  either 
perished  on  their  march  before  they  reached  Fezzan,  or 
were  killed  by  their  captor."  *  *  *  * 

"  We  have  obtained  most  valuable  information  as  to  the 
interior  of  Africa  from  the  laborious  exertions  of  Denham 
and  Clapperton.  They  reached  Soudan,  or  Nigritia,  by 
the  land  route  through  Fezzan  and  Bornou,  in  1823,  and 
the  narration  of  their  journey  furnishes  many  melancholy 
proofs  of  the  miseries  to  which  Africa  is  exposed  through 
the  demands  for  the  slave  trade.  Major  Denham  says, 
'On  attacking  a  place,  it  is  the  custom  of  the  country 
instantly  to  fire  it,  and,  as  they  (the  villages)  are  all 
composed  of  straw  huts  only,  the  whole  is  shortly  de- 
voured by  the  flames.  The  unfortunate  inhabitants  fly 
quickly  from  the  devouring  element,  and  fall  immediately 
into  the  hands  of  their  no  less  merciless  enemies,  who 
surround  the  place ;  the  men  are  quickly  massacred,  and 
the  women  and  children  lashed  together  and  made  slaves.' 

"  Denham  tell  us  that  the  Begharmi  nation  had  been 
discomfited  by  the  sheik  of  Bornou,  in  five  different  expe- 
ditions, when  at  least  twenty  thousand  poor  creatures  were 
slaughtered,  and  three  fourths  of  that  number,  at  least, 
driven  into  slavery.  And  in  speaking  of  these  wars,  he 
uses  this  remarkable  expression,  — '  The  season  of  the 
year  had  arrived,  (25th  November,)  when  the  sovereigns 
of  these  countries  go  out  to  battle.'  Commodore  Owen, 
who  was  employed  in  the  survey  of  the  eastern  coast  of 
2 


10 

Africa,  about  the  years  of  1823  and  1824,  says,  'The 
riches  of  Quilimane  consisted  in  a  trifling  degree  of  gold 
and  silver,  but  principally  of  grain,  which  was  produced 
in  such  quantities  as  to  supply  Mozambique.  But  the 
introduction  of  the  slave  trade  stopped  the  pursuits  of 
industry,  and  changed  those  places,  where  peace  and 
agriculture  had  formerly  reigned,  into  the  seat  of  war 
and  bloodshed. 

"Contending  tribes  are  now  continually  striving  to 
obtain,  by  mutual  conflict,  prisoners  as  slaves  for  sale 
to  the  Portuguese,  who  excite  those  wars,  and  fatten  on 
the  blood  and  wretchedness  they  produce." 

"  In  speaking  of  Inhambane,  he  says  ;  '  The  slaves  they 
do  obtain  are  the  spoils  of  war  among  the  petty  tribes, 
who,  were  it  not  for  the  market  they  thus  find  for  their 
prisoners,  would,  in  all  likelihood,  remain  in  peace  with 
each  other,  and  probably  be  connected  by  bonds  of 
mutual  interest.' " 

"  Ashmun,  agent  of  the  American  Colonial  Society,  in 
writing  to  the  Board  of  Directors  from  Liberia,  in  1823, 
says,  '  The  following  incident  I  relate,  not  for  its  singu- 
larity, for  similar  events  take  place,  perhaps,  every  month 
in  the  year ;  but  it  has  fallen  under  my  own  observation, 
and  I  can-vouch  for  its  authenticity  :  King  Boatswain,  our 
most  powerful  supporter,  and  steady  friend  among  the 
natives,  (so  he  has  uniformly  shown  himself,)  received  a 
quantity  of  goods  on  trust  from  a  French  slaver,  for 
which  he  stipulated  to  pay  young  slaves ;  he  makes  it 
a  point  of  honor  to  be  punctual  to  his  engagements. 
The  time  was  at  hand  when  he  expected  the  return  of  the 
slaver,  and  he  had  not  the  slaves.  Looking  around  on  the 
peaceable  tribes  about  him  for  his  victims,  he  singled  out 
the  Q,ueaks,  a  small  agricultural  and  trading  people,  of 
most  inoffensive  character.  His  warriors  were  skilfully 
distributed  to  the  different  hamlets,  and,  making  a  simul- 
taneous assault  on  the  sleeping  occupants  in  the  dead  of 


11 

the  night,  accomplished,  without  difficulty  or  resistance,  in 
one  hour,  the  annihilation  of  the  whole  tribe:  every 
adult  man  and  woman  was  murdered ;  every  hut  fired ; 
very  young  children  generally  shared  the  fate  of  their 
parents ;  the  boys  and  girls  alone  were  reserved  to  pay  the 
Frenchman.'  " 

From  a  letter  of  McBrair,  a  Wesleyan  missionary, 
recently  addressed  to  the  secretary  of  the  Wesleyan 
Missionary  Society,  we  make  the  following  extract :  — 
"  On  other  occasions,  a  party  of  men-hunters  associate  to- 
gether, and,  falling  suddenly  on  a  small  town  or  village 
during  the  night,  they  massacre  all  the  men  that  offer  any 
resistance,  and  carry  away  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  as 
the  best  parts  of  their  spoil ;  —  or,  when  a  chieftain  thinks 
himself  sufficiently  powerful,  he  makes  the  most  frivolous 
excuses  for  waging  war  upon  his  neighbor,  so  that  he  may 
spoil  his  country  of  its  inhabitants.  Having  been  in 
close  connection  with  many  of  the  liberated  Africans  in 
McCarthy's  Island,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  up  the 
Gambia,  and  also  in  St.  Mary's,  at  the  mouth  of  that 
river,  we  had  many  opportunities  of  learning  the  various 
modes  in  which  they  had  been  captured,  from  which  it 
appeared  that  the  wholesale  method  of  seizure  is  by  far 
the  most  frequent,  and  that  without  this  plan  a  sufficient 
number  of  victims  could  not  be  procured  for  the  market ; 
so  that  it  may  be  called  the  prevailing  way  of  obtaining 
slaves."  After  many  other  citations  from  various  author- 
ities as  to  the  cruelty  and  bloodshed  incident  to  the  seizure 
of  slaves,  Buxton  proceeds  to  state,  —  "I  could  add,  were  it 
necessary,  a  thousand  other  instances  of  the  scenes  of 
cruelty  and  bloodshed  which  are  exhibited  in  Africa, 
having  their  origin  in  the  slave  trade ;  but  enough  has 
been  said  to  prove  the  assertion  with  which  I  set  out,  —  that 
the  principal  and  almost  the  only  cause  of  war,  in  the 
interior  of  Africa,  is  the  desire  to  procure  slaves  for  traffic, 
and  that  the  only  difference  betwixt  the  former  times  and 


12 

the  present  day  is  this,  —  that  the  mortality  consequent  on 
the  cruelties  of  the  system  has  increased  in  proportion  to 
the  increase  of  the  traffic,  which,  it  appears,  has  doubled  in 
amount,  as  compared  with  the  period  antecedent  to  1790." 

The  next  cause  of  mortality,  after  the  seizure,  is  the 
cruelty  exercised  in  the  march  of  the  slave  and  his  deten- 
tion previous  to  embarkation.  "  The  slaves  are  commonly 
secured  by  putting  the  right  leg  of  one  and  the  left  of 
another  into  the  same  pair  of  fetters.  By  supporting  the 
fetters  with  a  string,  they  can  walk,  though  very  slowly. 
Every  four  slaves  are  likewise  fastened  together  by  the 
neck,  with  a  strong  pair  of  twisted  thongs  ;  and  in  the 
night,  an  additional  pair  of  fetters  is  put  on  their  hands, 
and  sometimes  a  light  iron  chain  passed  around  their 
necks."  "Such  of  them  as  evince  marks  of  discontent 
are  secured  in  a  different  manner ;  a  thick  billet  of  wood 
is  cut,  about  three  feet  long,  and,  a  smooth  notch  being 
made  on  one  side  of  it,  the  ankle  of  the  slave  is  bolted 
to  the  smooth  part  by  means  of  a  strong  iron  staple,  one 
prong  of  which  passes  on  each  side  of  the  ankle." 

In  this  cruel  manner  are  they  forced  to  travel  from  the 
interior  of  the  country  to  the  coast,  subjected  to  every 
privation  and  misery ;  so  that  it  is  estimated,  from  the 
most  accurate  computation  that  has  been  attained,  that 
the  number  of  those  who  die  on  the  journey  alone  is  equal 
to  jive  twelfths  of  the  whole.  While  detained  at  the  coast 
waiting  for  embarkation,  from  want  of  sufficient  food, 
from  close  confinement,  and  other  causes,  diseases  of  a 
most  fatal  character  often  supervene,  producing  a  frightful 
mortality ;  so  that,  in  every  stage  of  this  dreadful  traffic, 
we  find  the  lives  of  its  victims  are  continually  sacrificed. 

\We  next  advert  to  the  middle  passage,  as  it  is  termed,  or 
the  transportation  of  the  slaves  across  the  Atlantic;  and 
the  sufferings  here  revealed  are  truly  of  the  most  appalling 
character,  fully  justifying,  as  we  apprehend,  the  language 
used  by  William  Wilberforce,  in  1807.  "  The  stings  of  a 


13 

wounded  conscience  man  cannot  inflict ;  but  nearly  all 
which  man  can  do  to  make  his  fellow-creatures  miser- 
able, without  defeating  his  purpose  by  putting  a  speedy 
end  to  their  existence,  will  still  be  here  effected ;  and  it 
will  still  continue  true,  that  never  can  so  much  misery 
be  found  condensed  into  so  small  a  space  as  in  a  slave 
ship  during  the  middle  passage." 

"  The  first  feature  of  this  deadly  passage,"  says  Buxton, 
"  which  attracts  our  attention,  is  the  evident  insufficiency, 
in  point  of  tonnage,  of  the  vessels  employed  for  the  cargoes 
of  human  beings  which  they  are  made  to  contain." 

"  We  have  a  faithful  description  of  the  miseries  of  the 
middle  passage,  from  the  pen  of  an  eye-witness,  Falcon- 
bridge.  His  account  refers  to  a  period  antecedent  to  1790. 
He  tells  us  that  '  The  men  negroes,  on  being  brought  /. 
aboard  ship,  are  immediately  fastened  together,  two  and  « 
two,  by  handcuffs  on  their  wrists,  and  by  irons  riveted  on 
their  legs.'  '  They  are  frequently  stowed  so  close  as  to 
admit  of  no  other  posture  than  lying  on  their  sides. 
Neither  will  the  height  between  decks,  unless  directly 
under  the  grating,  permit  them  the  indulgence  of  an 
erect  posture,  especially  where  there  are  platforms,  which 
is  generally  the  case.  These  platforms  are  a  kind  of 
shelf,  about  eight  or  nine  feet  in  breadth,  extending  from 
the  side  of  the  ship  towards  the  centre.  They  are 
placed  nearly  midway  between  the  decks,  at  the  distance 
of  two  or  three  feet  from  each  deck.  Upon  these  the 
negroes  are  stowed  in  the  same  manner  as  they  are 
on  the  deck  underneath.'  *  *  *  * 

"  In  favorable  weather  they  are  fed  upon  deck,  but  in 
bad  weather  their  food  is  given  to  them  below.  Number- 
less quarrels  take  place  among  them  during  their  meals ; 
more  especially  when  they  are  put  upon  short  allowance, 
which  frequently  happens.  In  that  case,  the  weak  are 
obliged  to  be  content  with  a  very  scanty  portion.  Their 
allowance  of  water  is  about  half  a  pint  each  at  every  meal. 


14 

Upon  the  negroes  refusing  to  take  sustenance,  I  have  seen 
coals  of  fire,  glowing  hot.  put  on  a  shovel,  and  placed  so 
near  their  lips  as  to  scorch  and  burn  them ;  and  this  has 
been  accompanied  with  threats  of  forcing  them  to  swallow 
the  coals,  if  they  any  longer  persisted  in  refusing  to  eat." 
He  proceeds  to  notice  the  case  of  a  Liverpool  vessel,  which 
took  on  board,  at  the  Bonny  River,  nearly  seven  hundred 
slaves,  (more  than  three  to  each  ton  !)  and  Falconbridge 
says,  "  By  purchasing  so  great  a  number,  the  slaves  were 
i  so  crowded  that  they  were  even  obliged  to  lie  one  upon 
|  another.  This  occasioned  such  a  mortality  among  them, 
that,  without  meeting  with  unusual  bad  weather,  or  having 
a  longer  voyage  than  common,  nearly  one  half  of  them 
died  before  the  ship  arrived  in  the  West  Indies."  He 
then  describes  the  treatment  of  the  sick  as  follows :  —  "  The 
place  allotted  to  the  sick  negroes  is  under  the  half  deck, 
where  they  lie  on  the  bare  plank.  By  this  means,  those 
who  are  emaciated  frequently  have  their  skin,  and  even 
their  flesh,  entirely  rubbed  off,  by  the  motion  of  the  ship, 
from  the  prominent  parts  of  the  shoulders,  elbows,  and 
hips,  so  as  to  render  the  bones  in  those  parts  quite  bare. 
The  excruciating  pain  which  the  poor  sufferers  feel  from 
being  obliged  to  continue  in  so  dreadful  a  situation,  fre- 
quently, for  several  weeks,  in  case  they  happen  to  live  so 
long,  is  not  to  be  conceived  or  described.  Few,  indeed, 
are  ever  able  to  withstand  the  fatal  effects  of  it.  The 
surgeon,  on  going  between  decks  in  the  morning,  fre- 
quently finds  several  of  the  slaves  dead,  and  among  the 
men,  sometimes  a  dead  and  a  living  negro  fastened  by 
their  irons  together." 

We  omit  many  of  the  statements  of  Falconbridge,  who 
was  a  surgeon  on  board  a  slave  ship,  because  we  do  not 
wish  to  dwell  unnecessarily  upon  this  painful  scene. 
The  cruelties  enacted  in  the  middle  passage  upon  the 
slaves  have  increased  to  an  awful  extent,  since  the  trade 
has  become  contraband  by  the  laws  of  nations,  from  the 


15 

fact  of  a  different  class  of  vessels  being  now  employed  than 
formerly,  —  those  that  have  much  less  capacity  for  the 
accommodation  of  their  human  cargoes,  in  consequence  of 
their  construction  being  such  as  to  render  them  the  most 
rapid  sailers,  that  they  may  outsail  or  avoid  the  armed 
vessels  that  are  often  engaged  in  pursuing  them. 

"  Laird,  in  his  journal  of  the  recent  expedition  to  the 
Niger,  says,  '  Instead  of  the  large  and  commodious  vessels 
which  it  would  be  the  interest  of  the  slave  trader  to  em- 
ploy, we  have,  by  our  interference,  forced  him  to  use  a 
class  of  vessels  (well  known  to  naval  men  as  American 
clippers]  of  the  very  worst  description  that  could  have 
been  imagined,  for  the  purpose,  every  quality  being 
sacrificed  for  speed.  In  the  holds  of  these  vessels  the 
unhappy  victims  of  European  cupidity  are  stowed  literally 
in  bulk."  *  *  *  *  "As  a  proof  of  the  increase  in  the 
mortality  on  the  middle  passage,  I  may  adduce,"  says 
Buxton,  "  the  evidence  of  Jackson,  (who  had  been  a 
judge  in  the  Mixed  Commission  Court  at  Sierra  Leorie,) 
before  the  committee  on  Sierra  Leone,  in  1830.  In 
answer  to  a  question,  he  said,  '  I  think  the  sufferings  of 
these  poor  slaves  are  greatly  aggravated  by  the  course 
now  adopted ;  for  the  trade  is  now  illegal,  and,  therefore, 
whatever  is  done  is  done  clandestinely :  they  are  packed 
more  like  bales  of  goods  on  board  than  human  beings,  and 
the  general  calculation  is,  that  if,  in  three  adventures,  one 
succeeds,  the  owners  are  well  paid.'  " 

Dr.  Walsh,  in  his  "Notes  of  Brazil,"  gives  the  follow- 
ing account  of  a  Spanish  slaver  detained  by  the  vessel  of 
war,  in  which  he  returned  from  Brazil,  in  1829.  He  says, 
"  When  we  mounted  her  decks,  we  found  her  full  of 
slaves ;  she  had  taken  on  board  five  hundred  and  sixty- 
two,  and  had  been  out  seventeen  days,  during  which  she 
lost  fifty-five.  The  slaves  were  all  enclosed  under  grated 
hatchways  between  decks.  The  space  was  so  low  that 
they  sat  between  each  other's  legs,  and  stowed  so  close 


16 

together  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  their  lying  down, 
or  at  all  changing  their  position  by  night  or  day.  As  they 
belonged  to  and  were  shipped  on  account  of  different  in- 
dividuals, they  were  all  branded,  like  sheep,  with  the 
owners  marks,  of  different  forms.  These  were  impressed 
under  their  breasts  or  on  their  arms ;  and,  as  the  mate 
informed  me  with  perfect  indifference,  burnt  with  a  red- 
hot  iron. 

"  The  poor  beings  were  all  turned  up  together ;  they 
came  swarming  up  like  bees  from  the  aperture  of  a  hive, 
till  the  whole  deck  was  crowded  to  suffocation  from  stem 
to  stern.  On  looking  into  the  places  where  they  had  been 
crammed,  there  were  found  some  children  next  to  the  sides 
of  the  ship.  The  little  creatures  seemed  indifferent  as  to 
life  or  death,  and,  when  they  were  carried  on  deck,  many 
of  them  could  not  stand  ;  some  water  was  brought ;  it  was 
then  that  the  extent  of  their  sufferings  was  exposed  in  a 
fearful  manner.  They  all  rushed  like  maniacs  towards  it  ; 
no  entreaties,  or  threats,  or  blows,  could  restrain  them  ;  they 
shrieked,  and  struggled,  and  fought  with  one  another  for 
a  drop  of  the  precious  liquid,  as  if  they  grew  rabid  at  the 
sight  of  it.  There  is  nothing  which  slaves,  during  the 
middle  passage,  suffer  from  so  much  as  want  of  water.  It 
is  sometimes  usual  to  take  out  casks  filled  with  sea- water 
as  ballast,  and,  when  the  slaves  are  received  on  board,  to 
start  the  casks  and  refill  them  with  fresh.  On  one  occasion, 
a  ship  from  Bahia  neglected  to  change  the  contents  of  the 
casks,  and  on  the  mid-passage,  found,  to  their  horror,  that 
they  were  filled  with  nothing  but  sea-water.  All  the  slaves 
on  board  perished  !  We  could  judge  of  the  extent  of  their 
sufferings  from  the  sight  we  now  saw.  When  the  poor 
creatures  were  ordered  down  again,  several  of  them  came 
and  pressed  their  heads  against  our  knees,  with  looks  of 
the  greatest  anguish,  at  the  prospect  of  returning  to  the 
horrid  place  of  suffering  below.  It  was  not  surprising  that 
they  had  lost  fifty-five  in  the  space  of  seventeen  days. 


17 

Indeed,  many  of  the  survivors  were  seen  lying  about  the 
decks  in  the  last  stage  of  emaciation,  and  in  a  state  of  filth 
and  misery  not  to  be  looked  at.  While  expressing  my 
horror  at  what  I  saw,  and  exclaiming  against  the  state  of 
this  vessel,  I  was  informed  by  my  friends,  who  had  passed 
so  long  a  time  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  visited  so  many 
ships,  that  this  was  one  of  the  best  they  had  seen.  The 
height  sometimes  between  decks  was  only  eighteen  inches ; 
so  that  the  unfortunate  beings  could  not  turn  round,  or 
even  on  their  sides,  the  elevation  being  less  than  the 
breadth  of  their  shoulders ;  and  here  they  are  usually 
chained  to  the  decks  by  the  neck  and  legs.  After  much 
deliberation,  this  wretched  vessel  was  allowed  to  proceed 
on  her  voyage.  It  was  dark  when  we  separated ;  and  the 
last  parting*  sounds  we  heard  from  the  unhallowed  ship 
were  the  cries  and  shrieks  of  the  slaves  suffering  under 
some  bodily  infliction." 

We  give  a  few  more  extracts  on  this  subject  from  the 
many  details  that  might  be  cited.  The  Carolina,  cap- 
tured in  1834,  off  Wydah.  "  This  vessel  was  only 
seventy-five  tons'  burden,  yet  she  had  three  hundred  and 
fifty  negroes  crammed  on  board  of  her,  one  hundred  and 
eighty  of  whom  were  literally  so  stowed  as  to  have  barely 
sufficient  height  to  hold  themselves  up,  when  in  a  sitting 
posture.  The  poor  creatures  crowded  around  their  de- 
liverers, with  their  mouths  open  and  their  tongues 
parched  for  want  of  water,  presenting  a  perfect  spectacle 
of  human  misery." 

"  In  a  letter  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  of  date  20th 
January,  J.837,  we  find  it  stated  that  her  Majesty's  brig 
Dolphin  had  lately  captured  the  corvette  Incomprehensible, 
and  that,  on  taking  possession  of  her,  the  scene  presented 
on  board  was  harrowing  in  the  extreme.  One  hundred 
had  died  of  sickness,  of  the  eight  hundred  embarked; 
another  hundred  were  lying  nearly  lifeless  on  her  decks, 
in  wretchedness  and  misery,  and  all  the  agony  of  despair  ; 
3 


18 

the  remaining  six  hundred  were  so  cramped  from  the  close 
manner  in  which  they  were  packed,  (like  herrings  in  a 
barrel,)  and  the  length  of  time  they  had  been  on  their 
voyage,  and  the  cold  they  had  endured  in  rounding  the 
cape,  in  a  state  of  nudity,  that  it  took  the  utmost  exertions 
of  the  English  sailors,  favored  by  a  hot  sun,  to  straighten 
them." 

In  the  Shipping  and  Mercantile  Gazette  of  2d  of  6th 
month,  1838,  is  the  following  paragraph  :  —  "A  letter  from 
the  Snake  sloop  of  war,  dated  31st  March,  1838,  says, 
'  We  have  captured  a  very  fine  schooner,  called  the 
Arogan,  off  Cape  Antonio,  having  three  hundred  and  fifty 
slaves,  of  both  sexes,  under  the  age  of  twenty,  and  have 
sent  her  into  the  Havana  for  adjudication.  She  cleared 
out  from  Gallinas,  and  lost  fifty  on  her  passage  by  death, 
owing  to  the  crowded  manner  in  which  they  were  packed, 
..resembling  goods  in  a  draper's  shop.' " 

"  In  the  parliamentary  papers  printed  last  year  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  following,  among  other  cases,  are 
reported :  —  "  The  brig  Don  Manuel  de  Portugal,  from 
Angola,  embarked  six  hundred  slaves ;  of  these  seventy- 
three  died  on  the  voyage."  "  Brig  Adamastor,  from 
duilimane,  embarked  eight  hundred  slaves ;  of  these 
three  hundred  and  four  died  on  the  voyage."  "Brig 
Leao,  from  Quilimane,  embarked  eight  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  slaves ;  of  these  two  hundred  and  eighty-three  died, 
or  were  thrown  overboard  alive,  during  the  voyage.  The 
small-pox  having  appeared  among  the  slaves,  thirty  of 
them  were  immediately  thrown  overboard  alive  ;  after- 
wards the  measles  made  its  appearance,  of  which  two 
hundred  and  fifty-three  died.  The  remaining  slaves,  five 
hundred  and  seventy-two  in  number,  were  landed  on  the 
coast  of  Brazil,  at  Mozambayo,  near  to  Ilha  Grande,  but  in 
so  miserable  a  state  that  the  greater  part  could  not  walk, 
but  were  carried  on  shore." 

If  to  the  mortality  arising  from  the  causes  already  ad- 


19 

verted  to  during  the  middle  passage,  we  add  the  lives 
destroyed  by  shipwreck,  it  will  appear  that  not  less  than 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  all  those  embarked  perish  during 
their  voyage.  Nor  does  the  mortality  cease  when  they 
are  disembarked ;  but  after  landing,  and  in  the  '  season- 
ing,' not  less  than  twenty  per  cent,  are  destroyed ;  and 
it  would  appear  by  as  careful  computations  as  have 
been  made,  that  there  is  no  exaggeration  in  estimating 
the  mortality  of  the  slave  trade  as  follows  : — 

"  1.  Seizure,  march,  and  detention,         100  per  cent. 

2.  Middle  passage,  and  after  capture,    25        " 

3.  After  landing  and  in  the  seasoning,    20        " 

145 

so  that,  for  every  1000  negroes  alive  at  the  end  of  a  year 
after  their  deportation,  and  available  to  the  planter,  we 
have  a  sacrifice  of  1450." 

From  the  African  Repository,  of  8th  month,  15th,  1841, 
we  make  the  following  extract,  viz. :  — 

"  We  cannot  too  often,  nor  too  solemnly,  call  the  atten- 
tion of  our  readers  to  the  fact,  that  the  slave  trade,  in  all 
its  infamy,  is,  at  the  present  moment,  going  on  and  flour- 
ishing, and  extending  to  a  most  lamentable  degree.  *  *  * 
It  is  computed  that,  at  this  very  moment,  twenty  thousand 
human  beings,  crowded  in  the  small  and  narrow  slave 
ships,  are  floating  on  the  ocean  between  the  land  from 
which  they  have  been  torn,  and  the  mart  to  which  they 
are  destined.  "What  a  stream  of  horror  !  what  cries,  what 
groans,  must  fill  the  air  along  their  whole  course!  How 
many  are  just  breathing  their  last !  How  many  just  cast 
overboard !  Who  can  number  the  accumulated  horrors  on  , 
which  the  sun  must  daily  look  ?  " 

Again,  from  the  same  periodical,  we  extract  the  follow- 
ing:  — "  When  a  slaver  is  chased  by  a  cruiser,  and  is  in  dan- 
ger of  being  seized,  she  must  be  lightened.  And  as  the 
slaves  on  board  are  less  valuable  than  any  other  part  of  the 
cargo,  the  heaviest  of  them  are  thrown  overboard  first.  If 


20 

more  is  necessary  in  trying  to  escape  the  pursuing  cruiser, 
men,  women,  and  children,  are  hurried  overboard  without 
remorse,  and  in  numbers  proportionate  to  the  danger.  In 
some  instances,  when  seizure  becomes  certain,  every  slave 
on  board  is  thrown  over,  in  the  hope  that  the  cruiser,  find- 
ing no  chance  for  head-money,  will  let  her  pass,  and  then 
she  can  return  to  port,  take  on  board  another  cargo,  and 
try  again.  The  slaves  are  thrown  over  with  the  fetters 
that  were  placed  on  them  before  they  were  brought  on 
board.  To  lessen  the  chance  of  their  escape,  they  are 
sometimes  cast  in,  fetters  and  all,  in  large  companies  ;  and 
to  insure  their  sinking  before  the  cruiser  can  come  and 
pick  them  up,  weights  are  sometimes  added  to  sink  them 
immediately.  But  this  is  not  the  only  mode  of  lightening 
the  vessel.  Often  three  or  four  slaves  are  crowded  into  a 
cask,  which  is  thrown  over  with  weights  attached  to  it. 
One  vessel  threw  over  twelve  such  casks  before  she  was 
captured.  One  vessel  had  five  hundred  slaves  on  board, 
and  threw  them  all  over.  These  scenes  occur  principally 
on  the  Western  African  station ;  and  it  is  said  that  even 
the  sharks  know  this  field  of  bloodshed,  and  are  often 
known  to  follow  the  slave  ship  from  the  port." 

Appalling  as  is  the  view  that  has  been  presented  of  the 
foreign  slave  trade,  it  becomes  us  to  contemplate  it,  and  to 
remember  that  it  is  not  probable  any  means  can  be  devised 
to  arrest  this  awful  waste  of  human  life,  these  multiplied 
and  dreadful  sufferings,  while,  by  the  continuance  of 
slavery,  a  reward  is  offered  to  stimulate  the  avarice  of 
wicked  men. 

Nor  are  the  miseries  and  heart-rending  separations  in- 
cident to  the  internal  traffic  that  is  prosecuted  in  our  own 
country,  to  be  passed  lightly  over  in  the  catalogue  of  evils 
connected  with  slavery.*  Notwithstanding  it  may  be  the 

*  Many  and  strong  are  the  points  of  resemblance  between  the  African  and 
American  slave  trade.  Witness  the  manner  in  which  the  slaves  are  secured 
when  driven  through  the  country,  or  transported  by  sea,  and  the  manifold 
sufferings  to  which  they  are  subjected. 


21 

intention  of  many  who  hold  slaves  to  prevent,  in  the  pro- 
secution of  this  traffic,  the  separation  of  families,  the  sun- 
dering of  the  domestic  ties  which  bind  hearts  together, 
whether  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  bond  or  free,  yet  it  is 
not  always  in  their  power  to  avert  the  parting  of  husband 
and  wife,  parent  and  child,  brother  and  sister.  Their  care 
to  prevent  these  cruel  separations,  even  when  thus  at- 
tempted to  be  exercised,  does  not  and  cannot  always  avail. 
Your  daily  observation  shows  you  that  they  are  often 
perpetrated ;  and  bringing  home  the  universal  Christian 
rule,  which  it  is  our  duty  to  keep  always  before  us,  how 
could  we  endure  to  have  a  parent,  a  child,  or  a  bosom 
friend,  torn  from  us,  and  plunged  into  uncertain  but  hope- 
less and  bitter  bondage.* 

v\It  may  not  be  necessary  for  us  to  point  out  the  evils  of 
slavery  as  it  exists  in  our  land.  We  need  not  offer  an 
argument  to  prove  what  is  self-evident,  —  its  inconsistency 
with  the  universal,  golden  rule,  and  that,  in  the  observance 
of  this  rule,  the  highest  interest  of  man  is  promoted.  But 
even  could  we  disregard  our  future  happiness  in  connection 
with  this  question,  and  limit  ourselves  to  that  which  will 
conduce  to  our  present  quiet  and  the  promotion  of  our  tem- 
poral interest,  we  cannot  doubt  but  that  these  would  even- 
tually be  greatly  promoted  by  the  exchange  of  the  forced 
and  tardy  toil  of  the  bondman  for  the  requited,  cheerful 
labor  of  the  freeman.  The  experiment  of  emancipation, 
wherever  it  has  been  fairly  tried,  incontestably  proves  this. 
It  has  ceased  to  be  matter  of  doubt  and  speculation,  but 

*  President  Dew  of  William  and  Mary  College,  Virginia,  in  his  celebrated 
attempted  defence  of  slavery,  makes  the  following  observation  : — "  We  have 
made  some  efforts  to  obtain  something  like  an  accurate  account  of  the  num- 
ber of  negroes  every  year  carried  out  of  Virginia  to  the  south  and  west.  We 
have  not  been  enabled  to  succeed  completely  ;  but  from  the  best  information 
we  can  obtain,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  upwards  of  six 
thousand  are  yearly  exported  to  other  states.  Virginia  is  in  fact  a  negro- 
raising  state  for  other  states ;  she  produces  enough  for  her  own  supply,  and 
six  thousand  for  sale." 


22 

has  already  become  established  as  history  by  the  testimony 
of  many  intelligent,  unimpeachable  witnesses. 

Would  we  secure  present  quiet,  unmolested  peace,  and 
undisturbed  fireside  enjoyments?  Let  us  put  away  the 
causes  that  now  interrupt  them,  by  an  honest  endeavor  to 
do  as  we  would  be  done  by.  Then  shall  we  receive  from 
those  befriended  a  practical  reciprocation  of  this  govern- 
ing principle,  and  our  hearts  will  be  daily  gladdened  and 
made  to  rejoice  in  the  smiles  of  gratitude  and  confidence 
which  on  every  hand  will  meet  us. 

To  parents  we  would  most  earnestly  appeal.  Are  you 
willing  your  precious  children  should  continue  to  be  edu- 
cated under  the  influences  of  slavery  ?  What  are  the 
habits  they  are  prone  to  form?  what  the  consequences  of 
the  examples  that  are  daily  exhibited  to  them  ?  what  the 
effects  upon  their  moral  and  religious  lives  ?  Oh !  let  us 
remember  that  unto  God  are  we  to  give  an  account  for  the 
lambs  he  has  intrusted  to  our  charge  ;  and  we  solemnly  ask 
you,  and  entreat  you  to  view  it  in  all  soberness,  —  do  you 
believe  that  the  continuance  of  slavery  is  calculated,  in  its 
varied  results,  to  conduce  to  the  prosperity  of  your  beloved 
children  in  this  present  life,  or  to  promote  their  hopes  of 
happiness  in  the  life  to  come  ?  or,  does  it  not  rather  in- 
evitably tend  to  induce  habits  of  indolence,  indulgence,  and 
vice,  which  lessen  their  present  usefulness,  and  peril  their 
future  hopes?  Parent,  art  thou  willing  to  leave  thy  child 
involved  in  these  fearful  responsibilities  ?  We  conjure 
thee,  as  thou  lovest  him,  ponder  this  subject  well. 

We  are  fully  aware  that  there  are  many  who  hold  slaves 
that  deprecate  slavery,  but  who  see  clearly  no  way  of  es- 
caping from  it.  We  feel  tenderly  for  these,  and  would  offer 
them  the  language  of  encouragement  to  attend  to  plainly 
manifested  duty.  Pray  for  an  increase  of  faith.  Our 
heavenly  Father  doth  not  require  that  of  us  which  he  will 
not  enable  us  to  perform.  He  hath  all  power  in  heaven 
and  in  earth,  and  he  will  remove  difficulties  from  the  way 


23 

of  those  who  are  concerned,  above  all  things  else,  to  know 
and  do  his  will.  It  is  a  truth  of  the  most  serious  moment, 
and  which  we  desire  should  be  impressed  deeply  upon  our 
hearts,  that  upon  the  professors  of  Christianity  devolves  the 
responsibility  of  the  continuance  of  slavery  in  our  land. 
Let  these  cease  to  tolerate  it  among  their  own  members  ; 
let  them  exert  their  influence  against  it,  and  it  will  no 
longer  continue  to  tarnish  the  name  of  our  common 
country. 

We  again  repeat,  that  he  who  calleth  us  to  the  discharge 
of  any  duty,  will  make  a  way  for  us  if  we  look  in  faith 
unto  him  for  help.  What  has  been  done  by  a  portion  of 
the  Christian  community  may  be  done  by  all.  We  would 
speak  very  humbly  of  our  own  religious  society,  and  of  the 
course  pursued  by  them  in  relation  to  slavery ;  and  yet,  for 
your  encouragement  in  freeing  yourselves  from  the  evil, 
we  think  it  right  to  advert  to  it.  Our  forefathers,  and  some 
of  those  still  living,  in  advanced  life,  who  held  slaves,  were 
brought  to  sqe,  and  feel  too,  that  it  was  not  for  them  to 
keep  their  fellow-beings  in  bondage,  arid  yet  consistently 
to  profess  to  be  the  followers  of  Him,  who,  through  the 
mouth  of  the  prophet,  hath  declared  this  to  be  the  fast  that 
he  hath  chosen,  "  to  loose  the  bands  of  wickedness ;  to 
undo  the  heavy  burdens  ;  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free, 
and  that  ye  break  every  yoke."  And  when  this  was  made 
evident  to  them,  they  dared  not  consult  with  flesh  and 
blood,  but,  in  confiding  reliance  upon  God,  they  proceeded 
to  liberate  all  whom  they  had  held  in  bondage ;  and  He 
who,  they  doubted  not,  required  this  of  them  as  their  re- 
ligious duty,  did  indeed  enable  them  to  accomplish  it,  and, 
we  reverently  believe,  abundantly  blessed  them  therein ; 
and  unto  Him  may  all  confidingly  look  for  a  blessing  upon 
their  honest  endeavors  faithfully  to  do  his  will  on  earth. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  we  desire  very  impressively,  in 
the  love  of  the  gospel,  to  bring  home  to  every  bosom  the 
solemn  query,  —  Are  my  hands  clean,  in  the  sight  of  God,  of 


24 

the  blood  of  my  brother  ?  Let  us  investigate  the  subject 
with  hearts  reverently  turned  unto  the  Author  of  all  good, 
and  with  fervent  aspirations  that  the  truth  may  illuminate 
our  understandings,  and  that  it  may  now  be  presented  to 
us  in  that  light  in  which  it  will  appear  at  the  day  of  final 
judgment.  May  we  continually  remember  the  declaration 
of  Holy  Writ,  "  If  thou  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are 
drawn  unto  death,  and  those  that  are  ready  to  be  slain  ;  if 
thou  sayest,  Behold,  we  knew  it  not,  doth  not  he  that 
pondereth  the  heart  consider  it  ?  and  he  that  keepeth  thy 
soul,  doth  not  he  know  it  ?  and  shall  not  he  render  to 
every  man  according  to  his  works  ?  " 

May  the  God  of  all  grace  and  consolation  bless  us,  and 
enable  us  clearly  to  perceive  our  duty  and  faithfully  to 
pursue  it,  that  we  may  experience  the  verification  of  the 
ancient  promise,  "Then  shall  thy  light  break  forth  as  the 
morning,  and  thy  health  shall  spring  forth  speedily,  and  thy 
righteousness  shall  go  before  thee  ;  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
shall  be  thy  rere-ward.  Then  shalt  thou  call^  and  the  Lord 
shall  answer ;  thou  shalt  cry,  and  he  shall  say,  Here  I  am." 

Signed,  on  behalf  and  by  direction  of  a  meeting  of  the 
Representatives  of  the  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  for  New 
England,  held  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  the  2d  of  the 
2d  month,  1842. 

SAMUEL   BOYD   TOBEY,  Clerk. 


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